Ufi .T. lÎF.I.TXVA.VX — D()( TKIÌS V. T.F.ET-WF.X 



mncli. They are ,i>eiievally slow, like almost all the j^all-wasjjs, when 

 it is (lark weather and ahvays clioose that side of the bottle where 

 they are kept in, which is turned to the li.nht. Only in warm and 

 snnny weatln'r they tly round rather much. 



We iHit some wasps on plants of 1* a ]> a v e r d n 1) i n m, which 

 had tlowerbnds, in a spacious <)lass-l)ottle, covered with nanze. After 

 some tiin<' the animals l)e.i>an to walk all over the plants and then- 

 buds. Mu. Molli AKT) (1) says that the ejij^^s are laid in the ovary 

 at the moment the flower is open. We cannot ayree with him on 

 this point. We always saw that tlie wasjts choose the l)uds when 

 they are no nun'e than S or 1) niM in lenjith and have a bent stalk. {'2) 

 These buds are set all over with lon.iï and rather stift" hairs, which 

 have ea<'h a swollen base , so as to cover the whole surface of the 

 bud. The was])s creej) with diflicnlty over theui. 



We saw a female .uoinji' searcliinuly over such a l)ud and at 

 length take a seat near the base Avith its head directed towards the 

 extreme i((»int of it. So it sat on the hairs , su])]Mutinii' itself with 

 the hind-legs against the stalk and then i)ut its ovipositor into the 

 base of the bud. Fen some time it moved a little , till at last the 

 ovipositor was entered quite into the bud and in this attitude the 

 animal remained about half an hour. It sat working so attentively, 

 that we could take it out of the bottle jdant and all, and look closely 

 at it. At last it quickly jyulled the ovii>ositor back and ran away. 

 A small dro]» of the white milky Juice sli(»wed the jdaee of the sting. 

 Afterwards Ave often snceeeded in making was])s lay their eggs and 

 ont in the fields we also found them in the act of disposing their eggs. 



The milky juice that has come ont of the small wound soon 

 becomes black and by these scars the l»uds in Avhich A^/Z^m- - wasps 

 have put their eggs , can be easily recognised. Each bud nuiy be 

 stnng several times. This sign however is not qnite sure , as it 

 sometimes occurred, that in buds, whicli carried a number of bla(d\ 

 spots , no eggs were to be found. A reason for this we could not 

 find. 



il) Molliaro. 1. C. pg. 1. 



(2) We even found buds that were still closed, but nlioadv enntaiiicd a well- 

 developed gall. 



